BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Union is considering delaying for a
number of months a proposed ban on beef by-products including tallow, EU
sources said on Thursday.

The ban, due to come into effect on January
1, has angered the EU's trading partners including the United States, who
fear damage to billions of dollars worth of pharmaceuticals and cosmetics
exports.

(NOTE: What do the terms "pharmaceuticals"
and "cosmetic exports" have to do with cattle infected and/or
dying from Mad Cow at the time they are slaughtered? Did you know that
the GEL CAPS huge numbers of prescription medicines are put in are made
from beef carcasses and 'meat' byproducts ("Specified Risk Material)?
Did you know that the BONDING AGENT in countless medicines that come in
TABLET form comes from those same beef carcasses that might be infected
with BSE? Did you know that many cosmetics have Specified Risk Material
in them? Did you know that the prions which cause Mad Cow/CJD withstand
temperatures of 900 degrees - more than enough to char most anything organic?
The clear and present danger of BSE/CJD prions possibly being in these
products is a major issue but big money seems to be calling the shots...yet
again. -ed.)

"A delay is one of the options available,
in fact it looks as though it's the most likely," the source said
in advance of an internal European Commission meeting on the issue.

The ban, adopted by the Commission in
July, was proposed over fears of BSE (bovine spongiform encephalopathy)
or mad cow disease and its deadly human equivalent CJD (Creutzfeld Jakob
Disease). It bans the production and import of products made using certain
animal remains known as Specified Risk Material.

Washington has called the ban unjustified
and unscientific and said if implemented could escalate into a full-blown
trade war. Earlier this month the EU executive signalled it was considering
softening its stance on the ban, and was ready to lengthen the list of
possible exemptions for certain medicines.

EU Farm Commissioner Franz Fischler had
already said that life-saving drugs would be exempted. The Commission was
also thought to be considering a transitional period for a full implentation
of the ban to give manufacturers enough time to amend their production
processes.

A new Commission proposal could be put
to a meeting of the influential Standing Veterinary Committee next week
and if passed by a qualified majority could be adopted soon after.

Mad Cow Threatening More Jobs
In Britain Sub:10,000 British Dairy Farmers To
Quit
In Next Two Years! 11-26-97

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - More jobs are under threat in Britain's animal feed
industry as the lingering beef crisis takes it toll on processors and forces
mills to shut down, a leading British grain firm said on Wednesday.

The discovery in March 1996 of a possible
danger to humans from mad cow disease wiped out 14.5 percent of the demand
for processed animal feed in the 12 months to June 1997 and further declines
are on the way, Sotiris Papasolomontos, technical and marketing director
of Dalgety Plc , said.

The decline has exacerbated waning demand
for beef as consumers become more health conscious and threatens an industry
already lumbered with overcapacity. The main ingredient in blended or compound
animal feed is grain.

``This change has inevitably led to mill
closures and, of course, loss of profitability affecting the whole industry,''
Papasolomontos told a grain conference.

``Overcapacity still exists within the
industry and undoubtedly further mill closures and rationalisation are
inevitable,'' he said.

He gave no figures for the number of
plants and jobs at risk in the industry, which enjoyed a 4.2 million-tonne
annual market worth 147 million pounds in the year before the beef crisis.

But Dalgety's new chief executive, Ken
Hanna, said in mid-September the company expected to shed 200 jobs in its
agricultural supplies division as it takes further steps to reduce costs
and capacity with demand for cattle feed plummeting. The division made
a trading loss of 200,000 pounds in 1996/97 on sales of 1.24 billion pounds.

Papasolomontos said demand from livestock
producers for compound feed was likely to fall 7.5 percent in the 12 months
to June 1998. That would bring the two-year decline to 22 percent, resulting
in a market of 3.32 million tonnes.

``Some 880,000 tons taken out of a market
place that was already oversupplied put a further squeeze on margins as
compounders tried to maintain market share,'' he said.

A decline in the number of dairy herds
is set to increase the pressure, with 10,000 British farmers expected to
get out of the dairy business between now and the next century. (NOTE:
That's 10,000 British dairy farmers to leave the business in the next
TWO YEARS. -ed.)

Problems for British feed suppliers are
mirrored in the Netherlands where an outbreak of highly contaagious swine
fever has led to the slaughter of millions of pigs and widespread job losses
at animal feed factories.

Papasolomontos said however there would
be new opportunities for suppliers willing to trace and identify the exact
origin of each ingredient they sell, due to a separate public health campaign
over genetically modified grain.

He was speaking in Brussels as the European
Commission prepared to announce new procedures for regulating the newly
developed type of grain that has provoked uproar among ecologists and some
consumer groups.

North Africa Moves To

Bar Any BSE-Infected
French Cattle
11-25-97

RABAT (Reuters) - Morocco said on Tuesday it had returned a herd of
cattle to France after finding out that they had come from a region affected
by mad cow disease.

The Moroccan agriculture ministry said
in a statement that 52 heifers were among a shipload of 253 beasts which
arrived in the port of Kenitra on November 13.

The rejected beasts came from the French
region of Morbihan which had just been declared affected by bovine spongiform
encephalopathy (BSE), the ministry said.

The ministry, referring to a story in
the newspaper l'Opinion, raising the question as to whether the disease
was in Morocco, said the 52 were not affected and had been sent back purely
as a preventative measure.

Morocco does not allow the import of
livestock or animal feed from areas which have not been free of BSE for
at least five years.

"To this day, no case of BSE has
been found in the national territory (Morocco) and the analyses carried
out regularly on a representative range of cattle brains...confirm that
Morocco is up to today clear of BSE," the ministry said.